


Stars. Can't do it. Not today.

by lilaliacs



Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, M/M, but also im proud of you if you got it, nora did make a post about it though so if you wanna check that out :p, please ignore the lame title pun, the sorting in here is all fro my headcanons!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 21:13:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7330879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilaliacs/pseuds/lilaliacs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>inevitable Harry Potter AU or, alternatively: Neil Josten And The Year He Finally Was Fed Up With Minyards Bullshit</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stars. Can't do it. Not today.

**Author's Note:**

> this is dedicated to tumblr user wildwoodparrish <33

Neil hated divination. But in the week right before a quidditch match, he felt like he was at the most miserable point of his life as he was sitting in the dusty sweet fog of Professor Trelawny’s classroom.

He was not the only one in the room who obviously would rather be anywhere than there, he realized as he let his gaze wander.

Still, neither the students nor the Professor herself could really feel bad for it, since Renee managed to make the lesson somewhat busy by asking just the right questions. Neil enjoyed classes they shared with Hufflepuff.

But he hated divination and he hated nothing more in this moment than having a clear view of the quidditch field while Renee happily babbled away about the exact position of Pluto next Saturday, the day she would be the one in charge of hurdling bludgers at his head. If the lesson hadn’t ended right there and then he probably would have leapt in the general direction of the goals.

As it was, he was taken out of his pain by Professor Trelawny closing her book and telling them to “rest their auras” over the weekend. Neil didn’t do things like auras and he definitely didn’t do things like resting. He couldn’t remember why he picked this subject. It probably just had been the first one on the list after the one’s he picked because he found them interesting.

Sighing, he slung his bag over his shoulder and made his way down towards the dining hall.

Somewhere along the way he got so lost in his disappointment in divination that he didn’t realize two Hufflepuffs falling in step with him, until they were nearly all the way at the bottom.

“So, Neil” , Renee suddenly spoke up, making him start. When he looked up he found not only the Hufflepuff’s Beater but also their Keeper, seemingly striking a conversation with him. 6 years of being their classmate told Neil that Andrew preferred the part of conversation that involved silent staring and raised eyebrows, so he knew to direct his words at Renee.

“Can I help you?” He knew he sounded anything but friendly. The last bludger Neil had gotten to his shoulder in a game against them also hadn’t been friendly.

Renee didn’t seem to care when she took his response up as an invitation to keep talking to him.

“Are you ready for the game tomorrow? It’s been way too long since our last match don’t you think?”

Her friendly tone suggested genuine interest but the glint in her eye said she remembered the last game and Neil’s trip to the hospital wing afterwards just as well as he did.

(The fact that Neil didn’t trust her serene demeanour also played into this observation.)

The main reason for Neils mistrust in Renee chose to speak up in that moment. Nobody in their right mind could be friends with Andrew Minyard.

“Neil thinks it’s been way too long since any match ever” ,he stated. When Neil gave him nothing but a short glance for that he scoffed: “Junkie.”

“Excuse him”, Renee smiled as they resumed making their way towards the Great Hall after Andrew. “He’s excited too you know? Don’t tell him I told you that though.”

The wrinkles at the corners of her eyes made it seem like she just told a friend a spicy secret about another friend. Neil didn’t care to be anyone’s friend or hear their secrets. He decidedly didn’t want to hear any of this from Renee, so he kept his gaze trained on the back of Andrew’s head in front of him.

Sometimes, in classes they shared, Neil found himself doing just that, wondering what it looked like inside of there. There had been nothing but rumours about Andrew and his family ever since Neil’s first year and Andrew hadn’t done anything to prove any of them wrong, or to no create more ever since then too.

“Infact, I think he’s the most excited when playing your team. I can’t hold it aginst him, you all are terrifying on the court.”

Neil didn’t think Seth had ever scored against Andrew in his quidditch career ever, but he had to agree his team’s chasers seemed to challenge their opponents usually. And he personally had seen Renee and Allison striking up a a reoccurring rivalry whenever they chased each other for bludgers. He never thought that Andrew would be excited to play the Slytherin team though. He never thought the apathetic keeper would be excited about anything ever. He couldn’t tell Renee any of that of course, so he resigned to an indifferent hum.

Luckily for him the conversation was forced to a stop as they entered the Great Hall and had to part ways in order to get to their respective house tables on other ends of the room. Neil had never been more thankful about this layout.

-

Saturday came and so did an early wake. If Allison hadn’t forced him to wolf down breakfast he would’ve fallen asleep over his plate in an instant. With her and Seth going over some plays again and their captain Gemma joining them soon after, there was a quiet buzz creeping up inside him though. 

As usual, the quidditch teams playing on that morning were the first ones in the Great Hall, so halfway to dinner Neil had a clear view of Andrew and Renee settling down on the far wall. Andrew resigned to his usual habit of letting Renee do all the talking for the both of them, even when the rest of Andrew’s family settled down around them. 

There were a lot of rumours about them, rarely they were good. Neil remembered their sorting ceremony. It wasn’t uncommon for twins to be sorted into different houses, but Neil had found it notable that neither Andrew, nor Aaron had seemed anything but indifferent about their sorting. The only person upset about it at that point had been their cousin, Nicholas Hemmick, who had for the whole meal afterwards blabbered to his fellow second year Gryffindors, about how he had hoped to at least be able to have an eye on one of them. Soon after the ceremony Neil had heard the first piece of gossip about the Minyard twins: their mother, a muggle, had died the year before at the end of a wand and apparently Aaron blamed Andrew for it. Supposedly they never really talked to each other after that. While that was only partially true (Neil had seen them address each other on multiple occasions during the last 6 years), it was save to say that they didn’t genuinely care for one another. Added to their indifference towards each other, the twins were also mainly apathetic about anyone else in this school. Their social network went as far as Nicky and Ravenclaw Kevin Day, as well as the weird friendships Andrew had with Renee and the gameskeeper Betsy Dobson and the rumoured maybe-relationship Aaron may or may not have with Gryffindor Katelyn. The underclassmen sometimes whispered among themselves about Andrew building up an elite from all houses around him and there were running bets on which Slytherin would be part of the small group by the end of the year.

Multiple of them had asked Neil about it, but he had neatly sidestepped every interrogation. Once he had heard Allison and Seth discuss the topic in the common room. Apparently Allison had money on Neil being The Chosen One, but Seth had said that he doubted any Slytherin would voluntarily join their “little band of mudbloods”. 

Allison had gotten up and left him at that point. It was the night Neil had decided that he could trust her, a decision he swore to give another thought everytime Allison forced at least three cups of coffee on him before games. He couldn’t really hold her methods against her though: When it was time for the game, he was basically bouncing on his feet.

The feeling only faded after he felt the metal of the snitch against his hand. It had been a rough game and he had stopped counting the times he had had to dodge bludgers coming his way at the 30 minute mark. Renee’s smile as everyone landed back on he ground didn’t fool him for one second.

Neither did Andrew’s bored expression. Or rather, Neil wanted it to be like that. He would’ve preferred the barely restrained tantrums Kevin threw after Ravenclaw lost, or him throwing random imaginary curses at the Slytherin chasers, like Gryffindor’s beater Hemmick sometimes did. But Andrew just flicked the celebrating Slytherins a detached glance, as he did his teammates and started to make his way towards the changing rooms.

Neil wouldn’t accept that.

He caught up with Andrew just outside of the walls separating the court from the changing rooms.

“Why do you even play?” ,he demanded.

Andrew turned around to raise an eyebrow at him but said nothing more. Today Neil wouldn’t settle for silent treatment.

“Nicky said you picked quidditch up before you even came to Hogwarts. If it’s as boring as you make it out to be, why haven’t you long ditched it? Renee said you were excited for this game. I even heard Aaron mentioning once that he doesn’t think you’d ever stop playing even though he doesn’t know why.”

“Well you already seem to have heard a lot about my ambitions from others. Still you’re here bothering me about it. Why is that?” Andrew propped himself up against the wall as he said it and kept his cold stare on Neil in front of him.

“I’m here because I don’t care what the others think. I’m here for you. You’re good, you’ve been doing this for quite a while so why don’t you play like it’s what you want to do? And if it’s not what you want to do, why are you still here?”

“For someone who claims he doesn’t care for anyone you care an awful lot about this.”

“I don’t care for you. I just genuinely don’t understand.”

“Oh, cry me a river.”

The way Andrew rolled his eyes as he pushed himself upright again told Neil that he had deemed this conversation boring, or would do so in a matter of minutes. But Neil wanted answers, so he stepped into Andrew’s way and repeated: “Why are you still here?”

Despite Neil’s plan of stopping him, Andrew didn’t. He nearly walked into Neil and only paused when standing nearly propped against him.

“Because I genuinely don’t understand why you care.” ,he said, his voice low and barely so much as a whisper. Since he was all up in Neil’s personal space, it was easy to blame the chill creeping up its way across Neil’s neck on the proximity or Andrew’s breath against the tender skin there. Neil chose to ignore it, along with his beating heart. He couldn’t let his anger spoil this chance on actual answers.

“But you do,and so do others so I’m sticking around to find out your reasons.”

“And then what?” , Neil shot back.

“That’s the question isn’t it?” Andrew shrugged and hooked two fingers into the protective gear on Neil’s collar.

“You know Josten, I paid attention in divination yesterday. And the stars are not in position for your early demise. So how about we postpone this little chat to another time? Don’t wanna upset the stars do we?”

“I don’t care about the stars.”

Andrew studied Neil's face for a sole minute, neither of them speaking.

He was way too close for Neil’s liking, but the soft tug on his collar and the light spray of freckles he could make out on Andrew’s cheekbones like this made him forget that inconvenience.

“Didn’t think you would.” Andrew concluded after some seemingly endless moment.

And then he was gone and Neil was left staring at the back of his head again.

He still didn’t know what was going on in there but when his teammates started to file in soon after, and as his thoughts wandered off to Mondays divination class - the next one the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs shared, he couldn’t help but think that he had came one step closer to finding out.


End file.
